Here’s a vintage like one we don’t find often in Champagne. Characterized by cool weather conditions and slow bottle maturation, it took no less than five winters in the tranquility of our cellars, to fully develop its bouquet and balance. A light gold color, fast and regular bubbles that burst like sparks at the surface of the wine. The first discrete nose offers citrus, floral and minty aromas, and furtheron, to patiently evolve towards a beautiful complexity of grapefruit, candy, white peaches, pears and quince ... A fruit festival! The mouth is very straight, tight and mineral, with a creamy finish and persisting, verry well integrated bubbles, the flavours being rounded off by some notes of litchi, hazelnut and brioche.

Wheras the roundness and the aromas of dried fruit of the 2004 vintage suggested a Champagne more suitable for aperetif and dessert, the 2008 vintage stands up to lobster and crayfish with elegance and finesse. A Champagne for connoisseurs from an outstanding vintage ...

November and december are MALO months! No relation at all to the French seaside resort of Saint Malo. The MALO I’m talking about takes place in the cellar, in tanks or in barrels. I’m talking about malolactic fermentation, in France also called FML (fermentation malo-lactique) or just MALO.

MALO ideally begins after the alcoholic fermentation. The latter is carried out by yeasts, which feed on sugar and produce alcohol and a whole bunch of aromas. MALO is done by bacteria (lactic acid bacteria more precisely). Like yeasts, lactic acid bacteria (we will call them LAB here) are a natural part of the wine world (they are just everywhere! In the vineyard, on grapes, in the pumps, on the floor, on the ceiling...). MALO can therefore start spontaneously, without having to intervene. Of course, you can also start it by adding LAB to the wine. LABs favorite food is malic acid. It’s a strong acid, which comes from the grapes. LABs would kill for malic acid and by eating it all, they make it disappear from the wine. More exactly, the malic acid is converted into the much milder lactic acid and some aromas by the LAB metabolism. Wines therefore often taste softer and may have gained aromatic complexity after MALO.

For red wine you make sure that the MALO always takes place. For white or rosé, the decision is not always easy. To obtain balance in those wines, it may sometimes be of advantage to preserve malic acid. In these cases: NO MALO! We block MALO by adding sulfites (which kill the bacteria), through sterile filtration (which take them out), or by low temperature (LABs like temperature above 20°C). Whatever technique is used, the most important is that MALO doesn’t occur after bottling. Because a wine that “does its MALO” (il fait sa Malo) just isn’t very tasty...

Nathalie in the Champagne (sometimes) does MALO on her wines. Even if straight and mineral acidity is primordial to the balance of Champagne, MALO may smoothen the wines in a pleasant manner. And let’s not forget the increased aromatic complexity.
“But often the wines decide themselves, whether they perform MALO or not,” says Natalie. “Wine is a natural product and therefore it does not always come to our doings, how it develops. Vintage, maturity, tanks, barrels… many factors play a role”.

Depending on the blend, Pascal Verhaeghe may prefer to let MALO be done in more or less large oak barrels and tanks.
“This has several advantages: The wines are smoother and softer and the woody character just seems to fit better into the wine”"

This Champagne offers a very charming view : golden coloured and bright, with fine bubbles climbing up to the surface in a regular and disciplined way. It’s the characteristic look of a Champagne that has ripened well. Its very intense and charming bouquet shows dry apricots and raisins, as well as some hazelnuts and caramel, underlining the creamy character of the wine. The bubbles perfectly play their role, giving zest, continuity and length. A generous Champagne for gourmets, to be savoured for an aperitif or a fruity desert.

PS. Give it a try on old Parmesan cheese. Absolutely mind-blowing!

I admit it’s a little early to talk about the 2014 vintage. But if you rake around the wineries at this time of the year, tasting some barrels and some tanks, you may set up a slight idea about this vintage’s character. And I can tell you that everything worked out fine, despite the weather was not in the mood in some wine regions. The yeasts did their job transforming all the grapes that were picked into wine. Into good wine in fact…

It was a difficult year in Champagne. Freshness and some rainy periods were favouring the development of mildew, compelling alertness and an increased presence in the vineyards. But the team of Champagne Paul Lebrun seems to have done a great job, as the vineyards were in very good shape when I visited them a couple of days before harvest. The was no problem with waiting for optimum ripeness of the grapes and picking started on September 15^th in the vineyards of Sézanne and Cramant (6 days after official start of harvest in the region). Fully ripe Chardonnay grapes from the prestigious Clos l’Abbé were picked from Saturday September 20^th.

In the Languedoc, the weather gods seemed to be particularly grumpy at the beginning of autumn. Luckily for Pierre Cros, only some of his old Carignan vineyards went through the first wave of heavy rains, while the other grapes were already comfortably fermenting in the cellar. Carignan is a very tough grape variety and the mostly centennial vineyards of Pierre Cros aren’t really impressed by capricious Mediterranean weather. I can already tell some of Pierres 2014-secrets: There are some really EXTRAORDINARY Syrah wines in the cellar, and the old grape varieties he planted in early 2012 (Aramon, Picpoul noir, Ribeyrenc…) have given their first wine…

Same region, same weather at the Domaine de l’Arjolle. It was a tough job to bring the promising harvest before the weather went mad. The entire harvest was carefully sorted and all tanks and barrels fermented without any problems. There is less wine than in other vintages, but what you can pour from the tanks and barrels looks already good. Very good!

Malbec is doing great in Cahors! After a very small harvest in 2013, yields returned to normal this year. And quality is great! That great, that Pascal Verhaeghe told me they fermented several tanks at Château du Cèdre without adding sulphur for the first time this vintage! Good news!

Will Gigondas be the king of the Rhône-Valley this year? After early picking of some Grenache and Syrah vineyards, the time of patience and waiting started. Bad weather threatened, but only light rainfalls made it up to the Dentelles de Montmirail during the ripening period. As a result, there are some knockout Gigondas wines in the cellar, with power, elegance and a multifaceted bouquet. According to Yves Gras, the quality of the vintage comes very close to 2012 and 2013…

This cuvee partly fermented in oak barrels (20%). Slight lemon aromas and a lot of zest in the nose, perfectly balanced and fresh on the palate, this wine is still young it will light up over the next years. Savour from 2015 to 2020.

The estate was created in 1902 in the heart of the Côte des Blancs. Paul Lebrun started to make his own Champagne in 1931. Nowadays, his grandchildren, Nathalie and Jean Vignier, cultivate 16,5 hectares of Chardonnay around Cramant and Sézanne.

those will be bubbles soon... Happy #winewednesday @winewankers @JMiquelWine @perrierjouet @Champagne pic.twitter.com/cvQsKsAoHT

— Champagne Lebrun (@ChampagneLebrun) October 8, 2014

Picking has started a couple of days ago in Champagne. According to the village and the geographically defined zones, the authorities had fixed the begin of harvesting on Thursday, September 11^th. AfterFirst tastings and grape analysis w e decided to wait some more days before starting harvest for our Champagne Paul Lebrun and Hubert Soreau. Meanwhile, we offer you a first retrospective of what has happened in the vineyards earlier this year…

Like in many French wine regions, the vines seemed to be in a hurry this year: early bud burst and fast plant growing lead to early but regular flowering. Homogeneous and “grouped” flowering is a good point indeed, usually leading to regular grape size and maturity.

During summer, it has not always been easy to anticipate weather conditions. Freshness and some rainy periods were favouring the development of mildew, which compelled alertness and an increased presence in the vineyards. Above and beyond the protection of the fruits, keeping leafs in good shape is primordial to guarantee their ripening. No hail for us this year! and due to our healthy grapes we are facing harvest with quite a bit of serenity, while waiting for optimal maturity. Berry tastings last weekend showed a serious gain of taste and flavours in our Chardonnays, due to the gorgeous weather conditions those last days.

We finally started picking on Monday September 15^th (5 days after the official opening) in our most precocious vineyards of the Côtes des Blancs and the more southern vineyards of Sézanne.

Oubviously there is a touch of „déjà vu“ when you taste the Cuvée Prestige of Champagne Paul Lebrun.

This Champagne has indeed some commonalities with its little brothers and sisters of the estate. Which is quite normal and even desirable, as I am convinced, that each winzer should leave (a slight) fingerprint on the style of his wines. It’s part of the habits of the Vignier-Lebrun family to ripen their Champagne for a long time on fine lees, before they take them out of the cellar. A single exception may be found in their cuvee “Carte d’Or”, which presents a younger, more lively and citric style.

The Dean of the estate, made from grapes of the finest terroirs of the Côte des Blancs, shows a warm golden colour and very fine, regular bubbles. A pleasant-smelling bouquet of ripe peaches and dry apricots, old Armagnac, crème brûlée and blond tobacco. A nose that invites to sit down and take your time…

The wine is dense and creamy on the palate, accompanied by fine, discreet bubbles. A well-structured Champagne one would like to eat and chew to bring it to full expression. I prefer to drink it “solo”, together with piece of old parmesan cheese and some good friends…